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  • The Waiter

The Emma Press

The Waiter

by Kwan Ann Tan.

  • £10.99
  • Pre-order
  • Paperback scheduled for publication on 13/11/2025
  • Page count: 120 pages
  • ISBN: 9781915628480
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Synopsis

London, in a not-too-distant future. The city is being swallowed into the ground, the rich are still getting richer, and Waiters do the jobs you don’t have time for. They queue for your concert tickets, stay in for your deliveries and stir your risotto.

Step into the shoes of an unnamed Waiter who has no recollection of who they were before their role at the Company. Now select your next job and decide whether to peek into the client’s luggage, and if you'll risk losing work credits by helping a tired woman with her shopping. Balance your humanity with your job security at every turn, and manage your creeping desire to understand who you once were, and who you might become.

You’ll want to crawl as close as possible to the edge of the maw without falling into its depths. With 12 different endings and countless journeys towards them, The Waiter creates a labyrinthine world of possibilities and parallel worlds which combine to explore queer longing, consumerism and agency in a city and a psyche on the brink of collapse.

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The Emma Press is an independent publishing house specialising in poetry, short fiction, essays and children’s books. Across all these series, we have a growing list of translations which includes titles from Latvia,...

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